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American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War describes the events in Atlantic history spanning the period from the American Declaration of Independence from the Crown King George III, of England. Pirates during the Revolution (see also Pirates and Revolution) The Continental army had no navy and George Washington notably laughed at the idea when it was first proposed. However, "privateers" and pirates were able to raid British ships with such efficiency along the North and South coasts of native Turtle Island that the British colonizers were pushed away and the former colonies that had united to defeat their parent empire then formed a republic and ratified a constitution to safeguard the prosperity of their new democracy and economy from the interference of its parent England. (The birth of US Exceptionalism: the belief that not "technically" being the original colonizers absolved white colonizers and black slaves of responsibility for the continuing colonization process) One of the first major actions of Alexander Hamilton was not to reward the naval heroes who had protected the New York harbour throughout the war and the fleets of Spanish and French armadas that supported the "American revolution" under sworn agreement to support a future "French" and "Spanish Revolution". Instead Hamilton reneged on his promise to France despite sworn loyalty to allies such as Marquis de Lafayette. Then argued that America had no responsiblity to repay their wartime debts loaned from France either, since the revolutionaries had killed all the monarchs and would soon be crushed and all debts would have had to be repaid to the next rulers. Hamilton was a capitalist and didn't believe that revolution could go fully global with England in its current path of dominance and France, Portugal & Germany all looking ready for an imperial reactionary period. Instead he allied himself with Scottish aristocracy and strengthened the USA as a vital economic and militaristic super-power that was able to eventually (200 years later in the mid 1900's) outshine the British empire through technological innovation in the post-WWII period leading to burgeoning television, film, internet and video game industries, amongst thousands of other technologically re-empowered industries like radio, music, media and fashion. Whether Hamilton was a Fascist opportunist or a "long-con artist" can never be known, but it is known that he developed the model for anti-immigration laws when he further betrayed his former French allies by http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/conferences/2004/john_jay/pdf/Harper.pdf Articles (TW inappropriate wh-rephobia and use of w-slur to insult an enemy empire) :"We see his view of the French character in a more famous pamphlet, "The Farmer Refuted," written in early 1775. In warning the British against military action against the colonies, Hamilton observed that although France had promised not to interfere in the dispute, "the promises of princes and statesmen are of little weight. . . . If we consult the known character of the French, we shall be disposed to conclude, that their present, seemingly pacific and friendly disposition Britain is merely a piece of finesse."3 It should be pointed out that this attitude was standard in the English-speaking Protestant world of the eighteenth century (and after), and Hamilton's generalizations were mild compared to those of some of his friends. After arriving in Paris in 1789, Morris wrote Washington of "the extreme rottenness" of French society and warned that the ingredients for a successful experiment in free government did not exist.4 The war itself had a paradoxical effect on Hamilton's foreign policy outlook. It actually served to increase his admiration for the British constitution and financial system which allowed London to mobilize resources for war on a scale never before imagined In his attitude toward Britain one also senses the feeling: "I have something to prove to you, and the effort is worth little if it does not receive your approbation." His outlook was infused with a feeling of kinship and a desire for respect and recognition. It is no wonder that he differed with those who never ceased to look on Britain as an evil empire" French and Spanish Involvement (see 1789 and French Revolution) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown "The final defeat of Lord Cornwallis at the Battle of Yorktown was due in large part to the participation of the French army and navy."https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estates_General_of_1789 "The French and American armies united north of New York City during the summer of 1781. When word of de Grasse's decision arrived, both armies began moving south toward Virginia, engaging in tactics of deception to lead the British to believe a siege of New York was planned. De Grasse sailed from the West Indies and arrived at the Chesapeake Bay at the end of August, bringing additional troops and creating a naval blockade of Yorktown. He was transporting 500,000 silver pesos collected from the citizens of Havana, Cuba, to fund supplies for the siege and payroll for the Continental Army.9 While in Santo Domingo, de Grasse met with Francisco Saavedra de Sangronis, an agent of Carlos III of Spain. De Grasse had planned to leave several of his warships in Santo Domingo. Saavedra promised the assistance of the Spanish navy to protect the French merchant fleet, enabling de Grasse to sail north with all of his warships.10 In the beginning of September, he defeated a British fleet led by Sir Thomas Graves that came to relieve Cornwallis at the Battle of the Chesapeake. As a result of this victory, de Grasse blocked any escape by sea for Cornwallis. By late September Washington and Rochambeau arrived, and the army and naval forces completely surrounded Cornwallis." Marquis de Lafayette https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/washington-amp-lafayette-162245867/ (TW: pro-imperialist views, dismissal of indigenous genocides) :"The Frenchman now presenting himself to George Washington in the Colonial capital of Philadelphia was the 19-year-old Marquis de Lafayette, who was in America principally because he was enormously rich. Though Congress had told Washington that Lafayette’s commission was purely honorific, no one seemed to have told the marquis, and two weeks after their first meeting, Washington shot off a letter to Benjamin Harrison, a fellow Virginian in Congress, complaining that this latest French import expected command of a division!" :"Others have described the French-American relationship as that of “sister republics” born during “sister revolutions.” If so, it is not hard to find the source of Franco-American conflict, since the parents of these siblings deeply despised each other. Never has a national rivalry been more spiteful than the one between the old regime of the Bourbons and Hanoverian England, though they did share a belief in the profound insignificance of the American colonies. As colonial overlords, Washington’s mother country and Lafayette’s patrie saw North America mainly as a tempting place to poach and plunder, a potential chip in their war with each other and a small but easy market of primitives and misfits who lived in forests and dressed in animal skins. For their part, the American settlers saw the British as their oppressors, and were inclined to see the French as prancing, light-minded land-grabbers sent by the pope to incite Indian massacres. :"The answer begins with the fact that the French and American revolutions were more like distant cousins, and that the French Revolution was incomparably more important to the United States than American independence was to France. To the revolutionary governments of France, America was relevant chiefly as a debtor. In American politics, however—just as the newly united states were struggling toward consensus on forms of government and their common character as a nation—the French Revolution posed the central question: whether to follow France’s egalitarian and republican model of society or some modification of the mixed British constitution, with king, lords and commons. It was in the crucible of debate over whether to go the way of Britain or France that the citizens of the United States would discover what it was to be American." References Category:War Category:History Category:USA Category:Imperialism Category:Colonialism